Disney’s premium streaming service Disney+ has been a huge success in the United States and got 28.6 million subscribers worldwide in just three months since its launch in November, 2019. The company now plans to launch Disney+ on Hotstar in India on March 29 sooner than the announcement made at the launch.
Hotstar, owned by Disney has made news in the global streaming market with making major records in video streaming in the world thanks to the Cricket which is the most loved sport in India and Disney has planned to launch the Disney+ service in India with the start of Indian Premier League (IPL) India’s premium cricket tournament.
Hotstar reports more than 100 million daily active users and about 300 million monthly active users. Hotstar offers its own premium service that features shows and movies from HBO, ABC, and Showtime at Rs. 999 (~$14) per year and Rs. 299 per month (~$4.2) per month. Its also offers ad-supported free tier that includes 80% of all catalog available on the service.
Disney chief executive Bob Iger said the company will rebrand the premium tier of Hotstar to “Disney plus Hotstar.” “We see this as a great opportunity to use the proven platform of Hotstar to launch the new Disney+ service in one of the most populous countries and fastest growing economies in the world.” He also said that the company plans to expand Hotstar outside India to launch Disney+ in South Asian countries.
But pricing details about the upcoming service has not been revealed yet, but its is expected to be about Rs. 599 per month in India. Hotstar currently competes with a large number of streaming services in India including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Netflix.
